Welcome to "Saturday Night at the Movies".

I'm your host, Glenn Holland.

This week's film is the British historical sports drama, "Chariots of Fire", released in 1981.

The film was directed by Hugh Hudson from an original screenplay by Colin Welland.

The cast of then relatively unknown young actors is headed by Ben Cross, Ian Charleson, Nigel Havers and Nicholas Farrell, supported by such familiar faces as Ian Holm, Sir John Gielgud, and Lindsay Anderson.

There are also brief, uncredited appearances by comic actor Stephen Fry and Sir Kenneth Branagh.

"Chariots of Fire" focuses on two British runners who participated in the 1924 Olympic Games.

One is an Englishman, Harold Abrahams, a Jew contending with both antisemitism and class prejudice.

The other, known as the Flying Scotsman, is Eric Liddell, the son of Christian missionaries and a devout Calvinist.

When Abrahams becomes a student at Gonville and Caius College at Cambridge in 1919, he becomes notorious as the first student ever to complete the Trinity Great Court Run.

He goes onto win a series of races throughout England, seeing his victories as a way of proving his worth.

He's also an avid fan of Gilbert and Sullivan's operettas, and becomes involved with soprano Sybil Gordon, after seeing her in a performance of "The Mikado".

In Edinburgh, Eric Liddell intends to become a missionary in China like his parents, but also wants to pursue his athletic ambitions as a rugby player and a runner.

Abrahams and Liddell compete against each other in a race in London in 1923, and when Liddell wins, Abrahams takes it badly.

Sam Mussabini, a professional trainer, tells Abrahams he can help him refine his running form and improve his time.

The masters of his college frown on Abrahams employing Mussabini, saying it is not appropriate for an amateur and a gentleman.

Abrahams rejects their position as old-fashioned, saying, "I believe in the pursuit of excellence, and I'll carry the future with me."

In Edinburgh, when Liddell misses a prayer meeting due to his training, he tells his disapproving sister his athletic ability is a gift from God.

"And when I run, I feel His pleasure."

Both Abrahams and Liddell become members of the British team for the 1924 Olympics, along with Abrahams's Cambridge friends, Andrew Lindsay, Aubrey Montague, and Henry Stallard.

In addition to intense athletic competition, both Liddell and Abrahams will also find challenges to their beliefs, their ambitions, and their character, both as athletes and as men.

The challenges facing two British runners in a mid-1920s Olympic games seems an unlikely subject for what became an internationally-acclaimed motion picture.

Its origins were equally unlikely.

Producer David Puttnam had for some time been looking for a story about someone taking a stand for his religious convictions.

He was thinking of something similar to the story of Sir Thomas More in "A Man for All Seasons", released in 1966 and winner of six Academy Awards, including Best Picture.

When Puttnam was housebound in a rental in Los Angeles with a bad case of the flu in 1977, he happened to read about Liddell in a reference book about the Olympics.

It was then he knew he'd found the story for the film he'd been hoping to make.

One part of "Chariots of Fire" that may be better known than the film itself is its score by Greek electronic composer Vangelis Papathanassiou.

Director Hugh Hudson had collaborated with Vangelis before, and both Hudson and David Puttnam greatly admired his music.

Hudson later said, "I knew we needed a piece which was anachronistic to the period to give it a feel of modernity."

The score won an Academy Award in 1982, and the soundtrack album topped the Billboard 200 for four weeks.

The music that ran under the film's titles was released as a single titled, "Chariots of Fire", and hit number one on the Billboard Hot 100.

It has since become widely recognizable in both serious and parodic contexts.

Its familiarity as an iconic athletic tribute lies in its composer's intentions.

Vangelis told David Puttnam, "My father is a runner, and this is an anthem to him."

The title "Chariots of Fire" appears to be taken from the hymn, "Jerusalem", sung at the end of the film, a hymn based on a poem by William Blake.

But it refers more directly to the invisible heavenly army that protects the prophet Elisha from an army of Arameans in 2 Kings 6:17.

"When Elisha prayed, the Lord opened the eyes of Elisha's servant, and he saw the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire all around Elisha."

The apparent meaning is those who trust in God will be upheld and defended by Him, even if they appear to be standing alone.

Once David Puttnam had this idea for his story, he recruited screenwriter Colin Welland, who began his work by finding out as much about Eric Liddell and the 1924 Olympics as he possibly could.

Welland placed newspaper advertisements soliciting memories of the games from those who had been involved over 50 years before.

He read books, reviewed photos and films, and attended the memorial service for Harold Abrahams, which provides the framing for the movie.

Aubrey Montague's son sent Welland copies of letters Montague had written to his mother during the games, and readings from some of them are included in the film.

Welland had wanted to include a third gold medalist from the 1924 Olympics, middle distance runner, Douglas Lowe, a graduate of Pembroke College, Cambridge, who had also won gold during the 1928 Olympics in Amsterdam.

But Lowe wanted nothing to do with the proposed movie.

Similarly, David Burghley, 6th Marquess of Exeter, another competitor in the 1924 Olympics, objected to historical inaccuracies in the film and would not allow his name to be used.

It was he who had successfully completed the Trinity Great Court Run, not Abrahams, who never attempted it.

And it happened during Burghley's senior year in 1927.

In place of Lowe and Burghley, Welland was compelled to create a fictional aristocratic athlete to whom he gave the name Lord Andrew Lindsay.

The story that "Chariots of Fire" tells is about achieving victory through discipline and moral courage, so it was important for the film to be historically authentic, even if not historically accurate.

What is more accurate is the film's depiction of the achievements of its two main characters, Harold Abrahams and Eric Liddell.

Although in the film, Abrahams's athletic prowess overshadowed by that of Liddell, he was one of the great runners of his time.

Philip Noel-Baker, a British Olympian and later winner of the Nobel Peace Prize, wrote, "I have always believed that Harold Abrahams was the only European sprinter who could have run with Jesse Owens, Ralph Metcalfe, and the other great sprinters from the U.S.

He was in their class not only because of natural gifts, but because he understood athletics and had given more brain power and more willpower to the subject than any other runner of his day."

Eric Liddell, on the other hand, seems to have been more of a natural phenomenon.

He was notable as a runner not only for his speed, but also for his unique way of running, which the movie depicts accurately.

He had a sprawling stride and would run with his head back and his mouth wide open.

During one race in Scotland when Liddell was far behind, a spectator said to a man from Glasgow that Liddell would have a hard time winning.

The Glaswegian just replied, "His head's not back yet."

Liddell won, his head back and his mouth open.

Harold Abrahams himself said, "People may shout their heads off about his appalling style.

Well, let them.

He gets there."

In 1925, Eric Liddell returned to northern China to work as a missionary.

He devoted most of his time to people in regions that had been devastated during the Chinese civil wars.

He continued to take part in athletic competitions from time to time.

In 1943, he was interned by the Japanese during their occupation of China and lived in a series of camps.

He became a leader there, helping the elderly, teaching Bible and science classes, and organizing games for the camp youth.

He was in and out of the camp hospital suffering from exhaustion from overwork, and the effects of an inoperable brain tumor.

Eric Liddell died on February 21st, 1945.

A fellow prisoner, Langdon Gilkey, who later became a major American theologian, wrote, "The entire camp, especially its youth, was stunned for days, so great was the vacuum that Eric's death had left."

But Gilkey also remembered Liddell at his best.

"He was overflowing with good humor and love for life, and with enthusiasm and charm.

It is rare indeed that a person has the good fortune to meet a saint, but he came as close to it as anyone I have ever known."

Please join us again next time for another "Saturday Night at the Movies".

I'm Glenn Holland.

Good night.